Widow's Large Estate Goes to Bay Area Needy

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, December 23, 1999

1999-12-23 04:00:00 PDT SAN MATEO -- Retired Judge John B. Molinari, a cousin of Rena Colombo, is executor of the $2 million estate she left to be distributed to charities.

Rena Teresa Colombo, a widow with no immediate family, barely left a trace when she died last year.

But she did leave one thing that will ensure her legacy and make the Bay Area a better place. Colombo, who lived in a modest condominium in San Mateo, had $2 million when she died, and she left it all to charity.

"I think she felt her relatives didn't need her money, and she wanted to help those in need," said Leonard Berger, the attorney representing former Judge John B. Molinari, Colombo's cousin and the executor of her estate.

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In her will, she instructed her cousin to divide the money and distribute it to tax-free charities as he saw fit. So Molinari and Berger compiled a list of cost-effective charities in the Bay Area that they thought Colombo would favor, and Season of Sharing was among the recipients.

Molinari recently sent Season of Sharing a check for $175,000 -- one of the charity's largest gifts in recent years.

Season of Sharing organizers hope that Colombo's gift will inspire others to include the charity in their wills and estate planning. Ideally, such planning would allow Season of Sharing to maintain an income-producing endowment, instead of starting from scratch with new donations every year.

Colombo, a native San Franciscan, was married to Luis Colombo and was a cousin of the city's well- known Molinari clan. Her cousin John, now in his 90s, was an appellate court judge, and his son, John L. Molinari, was a San Francisco supervisor for 17 years and a former mayoral candidate.

"I didn't know her very well, but I remember Mrs. Colombo was very charming, very bright," Berger said.

She had family in Italy but no children of her own. She died of cancer in April 1998 at the age of 89. There was a small notice in the newspaper and a funeral Mass at St. Matthew's Catholic Church in San Mateo.

Aside from Season of Sharing, her money will go to the Recreation Center for the Handicapped in San Francisco, breast cancer funds, the Jewish Home for the Aged, Walden House and other local charities. (Donations to the Season of Sharing Fund help thousands of people throughout the year. Assistance is in the form of grants paid directly to the supplier of services, such as a landlord. Individuals cannot receive direct grants. For more information, see www.seasonofsharing.org .)